The offseason has officially arrived for every Major League Baseball team except the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays.
With the World Series set to begin on Friday, the rest of the league will soon shift its focus to preparing for the 2026 season. The St. Louis Cardinals have already started that process with Chaim Bloom stepping in as president of baseball operations, though his long-term approach remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the Cardinals are open to trading some of their veteran players and that Bloom has emphasized a need to add pitching depth to the roster.
We’ve reached the time of year when trade rumors and speculation start to heat up — even though most of the proposed deals never actually materialize. A recent example comes from MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, who made an unexpected and rather improbable suggestion by listing the St. Louis Cardinals as one of the top potential landing spots for Houston Astros ace Framber Valdez.
“No. 9) Framber Valdez, LHP, Astros (age 32),” Feinsand said. “Valdez was on track to be the top starting pitcher in this year’s free-agent class, going 11-4 with a 2.62 ERA through his first 21 starts and striking out 141 batters over 134 innings.
This doesn’t sound like for the Cardinals
“A lackluster finish to his season — he was 2-7 with a 6.05 ERA over his final 10 starts — and a highly publicized cross-up incident in which he (intentionally?) hit his catcher in the chest with a fastball following a home run have raised some questions, but his track record as a workhorse should put him in good position to land a healthy deal. Potential fits: Astros, Blue Jays, Cardinals.”
Adding a pitcher like Framber Valdez would undoubtedly accelerate the Cardinals’ rebuild and bring immediate credibility to their rotation. However, his projected market value — estimated by Spotrac at more than $199 million over six years — likely puts him out of St. Louis’s price range. The Cardinals have historically been hesitant to hand out massive contracts, and with so much uncertainty surrounding the 2026 season, that trend probably won’t change.
For context, the largest free-agent contract in franchise history remains Matt Holliday’s seven-year, $120 million deal signed back in 2010. While it’s been years since that agreement, making a nine-figure commitment to a 31-year-old left-hander who’s sure to have multiple suitors in free agency just doesn’t seem like a realistic move for the Cardinals right now.
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